A street artist in the Walloon municipality of Awans is on a mission to bring nature into the urban environment through his realistic paintings.
Gaspard Nibelle uses electrical cabinets as his canvas for vivid paintings of birds but denies that he is vandalising public property. Instead, Nibelle sees his paintings as an effort to brighten up the town’s neighbourhoods (and now those of other towns and cities) at the behest of the local authorities.
Once he has painted a background that integrates with the surrounds of the electrical cabinets, Nibelle goes about his work of. As he puts it, this entails removing the ugliness from the urban landscape.
“That is my goal. It's really taking an object that has become dirty or dilapidated, something grey that offers nothing to the landscape, and bringing it in line with nature. The intention is to integrate it with the surrounding scenery and add a touch of colour, like the birds for example."
Décor, not a "tag"
Painting or drawing on public property has led some to denounce the work as a tag or graffiti. But Nibelle explains the difference between what he does and more typical graffiti: "If I had written my name like that in large letters, then that would be a tag. But here, I draw a bird, so it has nothing to do with it. We can call it décor, not a tag."
Many passers-by appreciate his efforts and his approach. "It's a good initiative to beautify the city, it's a new art form and it's beautiful to bring this here," said one.
From Charleroi to Liège via the capital, the Brussels artist has already decorated more than 20 electric cabinets, always at the request of the municipalities where they are located.
And demand is high. Once his work is finished, Gaspard Nibelle will have decorated a total of five electric cabins in the town of Awans before moving on to his next commissions.
